Melka makes a proprietary red wine from Jumping Goat Vineyard in St. Helena. He’s made this for a number of years and the 2012 Proprietary Red Jumping Goat, a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot and 16% Petit Verdot, is superb. The color is more opaque and the wine is denser and richer with more blackberry and cassis fruit intermixed with camphor and incense. With good purity, a full-bodied mouthfeel, sweet, integrated tannin and enough acidity to provide focus, this is a fabulous example of Napa viticulture. Drink 2016-2032.

The 2012 Metisse Jumping Goat wraps around the palate with gorgeous depth and plenty of vintage 2012 resonance. Dark red cherry, plum, spices and new leather meld into the voluptuous finish in a wine that marries opulence with energy. This is a classic Philippe Melka wine built on texture. Effortless, seamless and flat-out delicious, the 2012 hits all the right notes.Antonio Galloni. Tasting date: October 2014

The 2010 Metisse Jumping Goat Vineyard, from a vineyard in St. Helena, literally jumps from the glass with freshly cut flowers, cloves, menthol, tobacco, smoke and scorched earth. All of the aromas and flavors are beautifully layered in this refined, nuanced wine. This is an especially silky, polished 2010 with tons of appeal. The 2010 is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot and 7% Petit Verdot. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2025.

Philippe Melka’s roster of consulting clients reads like a Who’s Who of Napa Valley, but the wines Melka makes with his wife Cherie are just as compelling. The Metisse wines are made from vineyards in Knights Valley and St. Helena.

Another striking, well-made Cabernet blend from Philippe Melka, who continues to evolve as a winemaker, with better and better efforts. This red is tight and firm, with a cedary oak touch to the dried currant, black licorice, sage and underbrush notes. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Best from 2014 through 2026. —J.L.

The 2009 Metisse Napa Valley is another huge, totally expressive wine. Here, too, the style is more polished and elegant than the 2008. Layers of effortless, racy fruit flow from this seamless, compelling wine. Hints of smoke, ash and tar wrap around the seriously intense finish. The 2009 is 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Petit Verdot and 7% Merlot from the Jumping Goat Vineyard in St. Helena. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2029.

I was very impressed with these wines from Philippe and Cherie Melka. The Melkas source fruit from a variety of vineyards in Napa Valley and Knights Valley. The flagship Metisse series represents a blend of French and American cultures.

The 2008 Metisse Jumping Goat Vineyard, a 350 case production of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Petit Verdot and 7% Merlot was aged in 85% new French oak. The wine possesses a dense saturated ruby/purple color as well as a sweet kiss of black currants, cedar, toast, gravel and flowers. Ripe and medium to full-bodied with velvety tannins (a Melka trademark), this multidimensional, layered, rich, supple wine can be drunk now and enjoyed over the next 15+ years.

"[2007] really feels like the benchmark year in Napa Valley," says Philippe Melka, who makes wine for a dozen top producers as well as under his own label. "All the district perfomed very well."

"Even if both vintages had fairly similar summers a cooler Auhust and warmer September, the rainfall wa framatically lower in 2008, and the frost during spring was the worst on record historically," recalls Melka. "I remember going to our Knights Valley vineyard, located at 2,300 feet, and [finding it] devastated by frost affecting 90 percent of the vines. Miraculously the vines came around to produce some surprisingly great grapes. So the effectof the cold created on the smallest yields from a harvest that I can remember."

Deep ruby-red. Extremely backward, medicianl nose conveys an exotic sweetness to the aromas of crushed blueberry, chocolate, caramel, licorice and marzipan. Then lush and seamlesss in the mouth; in a distinctly feminine style and offering plenty of early sweetnes and sex appeal. Perhaps still a bit youthfully monolithic, but there's plenty of structure underneath to support development in the bottle. Finishes with broad, late-arriving tannins. Melka emphasizes that his wine has been from a single vineyard since 2003, but that he is only now denoting this on the label.

The 2007 Metisse Jumping Goat Vineyard, a 400 case production of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot is a brilliant wine. Its dense ruby/purple color is followed by a classic nose of spring flowers, black currants, coffee beans, smoke, and a forest floor. Full bodied with silky tannins, a voluptuous texture, and a real opulence and length, it comes across like a French right bank wine rather than a Cabernet Sauvignon-dominated red.

Good deep ruby-red. Aromas of blackberry liqueur, smoke, gravel and violet. Superripe, chewy and sweet, with a Graves-like silkiness of texture to the flavors of currant, blackberry, minerals and dark chocolate. Very ripe wine, yet it retains an elegant quality. The velvety tannins arrive late, reaching the front teeth and allowing the black fruit and menthol finishing flavors to expand. As in recent years, this comes from Jim Gamble's vineyard next to Spottswoode.

Deep ruby-red. High-pitched aromas of black fruits, licorice and menthol. Pure and sweet but backward, with classic, lush black fruit and bitter chocolate flavors enlivened by a mineral firmness. Much tighter-grained than the 2006, and yet there's terrific density and body here. This really saturates the palate with flavor.

The 2006 Metisse from Napa Valley (Speckled Swan Vyd) which is 83% Cabernet and a blend of Merlot and Petit Verdot, exhibits a deep ruby purple color along with aromas of graphite, black cherries, black currants, smoke and earth. Deep and medium to full-bodied with sweet tannins, an enticing, juicy texture, and a velvety finish, it avoids the rustic tannins and overly muscular style of some of the 2006s.

Saturated ruby-red. Cassis, licorice, mocha and mint on the nose with some suggestions of superripe fruit. Sweet and fresh in the mouth but with lovely lift to the fleshy flavors of blackberry, cassis, violet, tar, spices and bitter chocolate. Finishes with substantial ripe, suave tannins and outstanding length.

The 2005 Métisse has soared in quality since I tasted it last year, putting on weight and showing much more drama and intensity than I thought. The final blend of 92% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Petit Verdot has it all - a deep ruby/purple color and a beautiful nose of crème de cassis, vanilla, coffee bean, and spice box. The wine is full-bodied, has superb richness, silky tannins, and a very layered, rich mouthfeel. This is a sensational wine that can be drunk now or cellared for at least two decades or more.

Some other good news is that Philippe Melka is now making around 200 cases of Métisse St.-Emilion from a vineyard just below Beausejour-Becot. Philippe Melka’s 500 cases of this wine originate now from a vineyard located off the back streets of St. Helena, not far from the Benchland vineyards of Spottswoode.

The 2003 is a Bordeaux blend based on 85% cabernet sauvignon, from Jim and Stephanie Gamble's Madrona Ranch vineyard located near Spottswood. Bright medium ruby. Black plum, black cherry, caramel and violet on the nose. Sweet and round but high-pitched, with nicely integrated acidity lending freshness to the dark berry and licorice flavors. Finishes with fine tannins and excellent length. The 2004 Metisse is full ruby. Black plum, minerals and a hint of game on the slightly wild nose. Dense, silky and lush but with perfectly integrated acidity and a violet florality giving this rather claret-like wine a distinctly juicy character. Offers terrific subtle sweetness and finishes with outstanding persistence.

Well-known wine consultant Philippe Melka has produced approximately 500 cases of this wine. The 2003 Métisse, a blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot, is a 20-year wine. It offers beautiful scents of white chocolate, charcoal embers, flowers, blackberries, and currants. Aged in 75% new French oak, it is full-bodied with silky tannin, a superb texture, and a window of drinkability between 2007-2020.

The opaque purple-tinged 2004 Métisse, an identical blend to the 2003 (90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot), boasts an intense, pure nose of licorice, blueberries, blackberries, and cassis. Silky tannin, well-integrated wood, and a full-bodied, opulent mid-palate, as well as finish, are authoritative, yet exhibit terrific equilbrium and freshness. The 2004 should hit its peak in 4-5 years, and last for two decades.